I wonder if we are past the tipping point. If someone’s main social group is rationalists I am not sure it makes sense not to live in the Bay. You will lose too many friends over time. And maintaining long term social connections is very important. I think the unfortunate situation is that non-Bay communities have to be be staffed by people who dislike the bay culture, dont consider rationalsits their primary social group or have strong reasons for living in a particular city (for example they work in finance and alot of the jobs are in NYC). I think this situation is problematic, mostly for reasons you outlined. But there isn’t going to be a coordinated effort to reverse the trend of people moving to the Bay. And there are certainly benefits of having people concentrated. I also agree that the schelling point had to be the Bay, the silicon valley money was too important given the communities goals and deamgraphics.
This sort of concern is why I didn’t advocate an actual coordination effort in the opposite direction, but I think the advice of “build robust communities that have ‘train successors’ baked into the DNA” is important advice regardless, which meanwhile helps with the problem in (I think) a basically pure-positive way. (It’s harder for a new organizer to do, esp. if no one else is showing much signs of agency, but I think generally worth the effort).
I wonder if we are past the tipping point. If someone’s main social group is rationalists I am not sure it makes sense not to live in the Bay. You will lose too many friends over time. And maintaining long term social connections is very important. I think the unfortunate situation is that non-Bay communities have to be be staffed by people who dislike the bay culture, dont consider rationalsits their primary social group or have strong reasons for living in a particular city (for example they work in finance and alot of the jobs are in NYC). I think this situation is problematic, mostly for reasons you outlined. But there isn’t going to be a coordinated effort to reverse the trend of people moving to the Bay. And there are certainly benefits of having people concentrated. I also agree that the schelling point had to be the Bay, the silicon valley money was too important given the communities goals and deamgraphics.
This sort of concern is why I didn’t advocate an actual coordination effort in the opposite direction, but I think the advice of “build robust communities that have ‘train successors’ baked into the DNA” is important advice regardless, which meanwhile helps with the problem in (I think) a basically pure-positive way. (It’s harder for a new organizer to do, esp. if no one else is showing much signs of agency, but I think generally worth the effort).